*** UPDATE *** From the Sun-Times…

The hearing officer in Rahm Emanuel’s residency case has tossed out a friend-of-the-court brief filed by 47 well-known attorneys who argued that Emanuel should be allowed to run for mayor.

The attorneys raised no new arguments that Emanuel’s attorneys had not already made, and four of the attorneys work at the Mayer Brown law firm, which is representing Emanuel in the case, hearing officer Joe Morris wrote.

Morris’ ruling on the friend-of-the-court brief does not necessarily signal his decision on Emanuel’s right to run for mayor, when he presents his findings to the Chicago Board of Elections on Wednesday. […]

“The hearing officer has examined the proposed brief and finds in it no argument that has not already been made,” Morris wrote.

[ *** End Of Update *** ]

* Congressman Danny Davis says he’s in the mayor’s race to stay. But he made some embarrassing admissions over the weekend…

“There are some who are asking the question, ‘Where is Danny Davis?’ And still others have suggested that I may just not run. The truth is, I’m just getting in this race,” Davis said to a crowd gathered at the West Side’s Johnny L. Miller Abundant Life Center.

Rahm Emanuel has been running for mayor for months, as has Rev. Sen. James Meeks, and Gery Chico, and Carol Moseley Braun, etc. It’s pretty darned late to be just getting set up. And it’s perfectly legit to ask where he’s been all this time.

Davis’ latest FEC filing on December 1st showed he had $376,647 in the bank. He reported another $10K in his state fund this past July.

* And crowing about a poll that has you in single digits is a bit odd…

Davis also cited a recent Tribune poll in which he and former Chicago Public Schools chief Gery Chico were tied for second with 9 percent. The poll showed that Davis is backed by 21 percent of black voters, more than any of the other candidates in the race.

* And then there’s this…

Q. There are pictures that appear to show you placing a crown on the head of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, head of the Unification Church at a banquet. How’d that whole thing happen?

A.That’s a big lie. I was at the banquet. A fella named Michael Jenkins, whom I know, came up to me and said, “We are going to crown Rev. and Mrs. Moon ‘true parents.’ Would you do us a favor and carry one of them up to the place where they are sitting?” And I said, “Well, yeah, Michael, I think I can do that.” And so I carried the crown for Mrs. Moon. When I got to where she was, I gave it to somebody else and they then crowned her. So I didn’t put a crown on anybody, I was not even, I guess, a part of the ceremony. Why can’t the truth just be the truth?

Q. His church is very controversial. It has been called a “cult.” He’s made anti-Semitic and anti-homosexual statements. He’s a big promoter of conservative causes. How did you get to be friends with him?

A.I don’t have any friendship or relationship with Rev. Moon. I’ve seen Rev. Moon a few times in my life. He is very conservative in terms of his political philosophy. I have some difficulty with this guilt-by-association idea. The fact that Rev. Moon said some things at an event that I attended has no bearing whatsoever on my feelings. There is not a public official in the city of Chicago who has been more supportive of lesbians and gays than Danny Davis. You cannot find a single person that has been more supportive of the Jewish community of Chicago than Danny Davis.

…Adding… The photo…

Background here…

As he made clear toward the end of his speech to the gathering, Moon believes himself to be “God’s ambassador, sent to Earth with his full authority.”

He said, “I am sent to accomplish his command to save the world’s 6 billion people, restoring them to heaven with the original goodness in which they were created.”

Moon went on to tell the gathering in simultaneously translated Korean that he’s been in communication with the spirits of Hitler, Stalin, Marx, Lenin and “the founders of five great religions,” and that these men and other notables have unanimously “declared to all heaven and Earth that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s savior, messiah, returning lord and true parent.”

Rep. Davis said: “I think he was simply saying that he’s a promoter of a message and that he thinks his message of peace and world peace make sense, not that he’s a messiah in the traditional sense.”

* But he hasn’t been reelected all those times for nothing…

“For too long I’ve seen two cities in Chicago. One city is prospering and vibrant; the other, poor and struggling,” he said.

Davis also said he supports an elected school board and wants a professional educator to lead the public schools.

This is a race to the runoff. Davis needs to ramp up super-fast. With two other African-Americans in the race, it won’t be easy. But Toni Preckwinkle took half the vote in the February primary even though she had black opposition and was up against a guy with unified white support.

Also, keep in mind that Chicago is very tough to poll.

* Whatever his faults, Davis has certainly been more visible than Roland Burris, who dropped out of the race Friday…

Former Sen. Roland Burris took himself out of the race for mayor Friday as obscurely as he entered it — with a brief press release.

From the day a few weeks ago that supporters filed nominating papers, until Friday, Burris made no public appearances and attended none of the public forums that most of the major candidates for mayor attended.

* Roundup…

* Emanuel defends missing forums, debates

* Rahm Emanuel confident he’ll survive residency fight: On another subject, Emanuel condemned as a “false choice” Chicago Police Superintendent Jody Weis’ upcoming plan to reallocate police resources from lower-crime districts to those that need more officers. Instead of robbing from Peter to pay Paul, Emanuel favors his own plan to use funds generated by Chicago’s 159 tax-increment-financing (TIF) districts to hire 250 more police officers to beef up Targeted Response Units that flood high-crime areas.

* Emanuel case before GOP hearing officer: From behind his reading glasses, Morris kept an even demeanor during the hearings and went out of his way to help objectors without lawyers craft questions in legalese, often to the obvious annoyance of the lawyers in the room. But Morris also was quick to try to shut things down when objectors veered off topic, such as when one man insisted on asking Emanuel about his FBI file.

* 48 legal experts say Emanuel has right to run

* Chicago’s election board takes center stage in Emanuel’s residency fight - 3 commissioners to vote Thursday on whether to bump Emanuel from ballot

* Mark Brown: Which box do you check on Rahm?

* Mayoral candidate Davis releases tax returns: Davis, 69, who has represented a West Side and suburban district since 1996, earns a salary of $174,000. The couple also reported $51,000 in pension and annuity income and $22,000 in Social Security income in 2009.

* Rep. Davis backed tax-cut compromise: It was quite literally a call from Obama that helped persuade Davis to vote for the bill.

* VIDEO: Meet Susana Mendoza